A Dark and Drowning Tide is a folkloric, adventurous murder mystery with a lovely, yearning-filled lesbian rivals to lovers story weaved throughout. I knew very little going into the story other than seeing the gorgeous cover art, it’s sapphic, and the main characters are academic rivals in some kind of magic-ish setting. I really thought I was going to fall head over heels in love with it (I even pre-ordered and got the pre-order gifts!) but I ended up just liking it. No harm, no foul. I just didn’t LOVE it.

I’ve sat with it for a while before starting a review up and I still can’t really place where this fell short for me. I feel that part of my lack of love comes from not really liking the main character, Lorelei, very much? Like I understand her, I get it, I have empathy for her, but I just… didn’t love her. I wanted to shake her so badly! Sylvia was cool though. Sylvia is strong, capable, and has the ability to communicate her emotions! I love a slow burn but Lorelei made my eye twitch. As someone who can honestly admit that characters>plot to me, I didn’t really care too deeply what was going on with either.

I liked a lot of the ideas at play though. I liked the folklore, I liked the magic, I liked the general sense of whimsy on the adventure and the beautiful descriptions of nature. I also appreciated the Jewish representation! Very succinct commentary on anti-semitism and just prejudice in general. (People who think books aren’t political, beware! LOL)

TLDR: 3 stars! Let’s go lesbians! Rivals to lovers! Magic! Yay!